City Council members are questioning Mayor Annise Parker's surprise announcement late Wednesday that the city may move its police and courts operations into the Exxon tower downtown.

A deal is far from done, officials cautioned, but the city may lease the 45-story building at 800 Bell from Shorenstein Properties, which has launched a joint venture with Griffin Partners for the "possible redevelopment" of the tower, a Griffin press release said, to house courtrooms and other city needs.

The announcement comes two weeks after Parker pushed the council to vote on the future of the city's police-and-courts buildings, offering a choice between constructing a new "justice complex" or repairing the city's crumbling facilities. With both options ranging from hundreds of millions of dollars to more than $1 billion, and with both requiring voter approval and perhaps even a tax increase to fund, the council balked, punting the item back to Parker.

The mayor had said she was seeking input on how to proceed, and griped that the council had "ducked" a hard decision. However, Parker did not list leasing space as an option, so the topic was not discussed.

Parker did mention the idea offhand, however, then saying she would "continue to explore all options, including lease space."

Security, tech concerns

Councilman and former police chief C.O. Bradford said leasing such a space concerns him because the building's age may prevent it from accommodating technology and security upgrades, and said the tower's height and underground parking are security risks.

Bradford added, "It's hard to believe" the idea was not under discussion when the council considered justice complex options.

Andy Icken, the city's chief development officer, said the Exxon option was first formally proposed Tuesday. Though Icken said neither the nature of the lease nor any costs associated with it have been discussed, he said Shorenstein hopes to complete the deal in six weeks.

"Although their proposal is interesting and potentially a lower cost alternative, there are many unanswered questions as to whether this facility can meet the needs for our 'Justice Center' and whether the property is affordable to the City," Parker wrote in a Wednesday memo. "We now intend to begin an intense effort to make that assessment."

Informed of the six-week timeline, Bradford said, "Oh, come on."

"I don't know how we can decide in six weeks how we can pay for lease space in this building and determine whether this building is suited to accommodate today's public safety needs and going forward," Bradford said. "Six weeks is a very tight time line, if not impossible, to make such a critical decision."

More space, plus parking

Councilman Stephen Costello noted that the needed renovations could decrease the building's square footage as well as increase it, but added that the new space could be used more efficiently than the current facilities.

"I'm curious about how much it would cost annually and whether we can afford it," Costello said. "That would include not only the lease space but also how do we renovate the space to accommodate not only our current needs but our future needs?"

The city's current justice complex outside downtown covers 18 acres in a dozen buildings, most of them built between 1950 and 1975. Officials say they are cramped, crumbling and lack adequate parking.

The Exxon building, built in 1962, holds 1.2 million square feet, about 10 percent more than the space in the city's current facilities, and has seven stories of parking.

Unlike the other justice complex options, leasing the Exxon tower likely would not require a public vote. Downtown office space of the size and type of the Exxon tower leases for about $35 million a year, according to a report by PM Realty Group.

"My hope is that this property will be able to meet the needs being explored at City Hall," Fred Griffin, chairman of Griffin Partners, said in a statement. "I am fully aware there are many issues that need to be addressed."

Neither Griffin nor representatives of Shorenstein Properties could be reached by phone.

Exxon moving northward

Paul Coonrod of real estate firm Stream Partners said he is unclear why Griffin is involved when the city could simply lease from Shorenstein, but said the proposal otherwise makes sense. Large building owners would rather lock up a tenant than sell a tower vacant, as will occur when Exxon moves to its campus near The Woodlands.

"There's a high likelihood they'd want to do that deal," Coonrod said. "Nobody knows what the (central business district) is going to look like or the energy markets will look like a year from now."

Mike Morris has covered City Hall for the Chronicle since early 2013, having covered Harris County government for two years prior to that. Before coming to Houston, he covered local government, agriculture, business and sports at daily and weekly newspapers in southern Indiana and central Ohio. He covers all things policy and politics in the nation's fourth-largest city, explaining the roots of today’s complex problems and exposing public corruption and failing programs. In 2012, he won the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors’ annual Freedom of Information award and was a Livingston Award finalist for a series of stories documenting rampant mismanagement at the Harris County Housing Authority.